The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Today, various computing devices, including many portable devices, support software applications that display interactive digital maps. Some of these software applications, such as mapping and navigation applications, are developed primarily for displaying interactive digital maps. Other software applications, such as web browsers, may display interactive digital maps along with other content.
To display an interactive digital map, a software application usually requests map data from a map data provider for a particular geographic area. A software application executing on a portable device (such as a smart phone) typically requests map data from the map data provider via a wireless communication network in which the portable device operates. As a result, the software application can only receive map data when the portable device has wireless network coverage that supports a data connection. When the portable device cannot establish a data connection, or when the portable device leaves the area of network coverage altogether, the software application often cannot display a map of the area in which the portable device is located, for example.